Last evening I was checking the pond, fences etc after being gone a few days and my pond had 15-20 dead bluegill as well as (6) 8-10 lb partially to totally eaten Channel Cat laying on the ice around the pond. its just short of an acre, island in middle 4 bottom aerators
have a trapper coming tomorrow. any additional input would be appreciated. I'm a bit concerned how I'm going to catch otters in a acre buffet.

Otters are "cute" until they start gulping down all our expensive fish. The way I see it...my fish can not coexist with otters. So I will kill them and kill them without hesitation. My trapper says the saddest thing he ever has to do is if after warning a land owner about keeping their dogs away from the traps...and the land owner doesn't listen...and then the trapper has too remove a dead dog from one of his traps...just be careful if ya have dogs. My trapper usually has caught at least one of the otters within the first 48 hours.

Illegal to shoot, or shoot only in season...SSS

Fred, we have a 365 day season here.

Yep...

"No license is required if nuisance furbearers are taken while causing loss or damage to agricultural crops, livestock, poultry, or personal property. However, such animals or their pelts may NOT be possessed or sold"

"may be hunted at night on private property with the aid of an artificial light"

https://tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outdo...ral-regulations

What I meant to say was that killing them out of season may be illegal in some states. Our wonderful state of Illinois even saw fit to stock them and banned hunting them for a while. Now they can be trapped. With their size and pelt at least it gives trappers something worth trapping.

The only one I ever saw in our pond got the SSS treatment. When I saw that 4 pound bass being eaten it sealed his fate.

When I first saw the otter I got so excited I ran inside and told Connie, "We have a seal in the pond" 12 gauge works well. Connie is still laughing about the seal comment.

After the otters decimated my expensive catfish that I had fed to eating size two years ago, I just pretty much stopped and let the ponds be what they will, other than mowing. I still feed a little, just to watch what fish I have left stir around. I even put some Koi in there.

I love your Country.

Bing
Sh- -t Shovel Shutup ?

Thanks my Italian friend....but we're not a Country....YET!

I just went by the firearms store today, getting a silencer for a 17hmr,, my favorite otter, GBH and muskrat tamer, I figure it will help me catch them to transplant them, set them free.

Buzzards and ants will clean them up pretty quick along with alligators and beavers. Just chunk them.

That's my theory, just looking for a politically correct way to phrase it.

Zep I meant all the USA

gotcha

Yup !

Mother Nature seems hell bent on managing your fishery, Zep.

At my place Mother Nature really kicks in during the time that the Tp slow down and or die. Otters, Bald Eagles, Osprey and cormorants. All of them show up at that time and then some will hang around for quite a while after that time. Right now the Osprey and the Eagle continues to hang around after 45 days from Tp die off.

I think otters can smell fish from a distance, and are attracted to a pond when you have a large biomass, as occurs when feeding lots of catfish.

Otters wiped out my fish cage. My LMB aren't happy at all.

They are a wolf in sheep's clothing.

An enemy I actually enjoy seeing with rigor mortis!

I had a mink clean out 4 cages over the course of a Winter, chewed openings right through the galvanized hardware cloth and the plastic cages, too. It's amazing how many lbs of fish this or these mink consumed considering their diminutive size. Since they serve as a primary predator of muskrats I elected to leave them be and beefed up cage security the next season. For some reason he, or they, never came back, unless of course they're at it again under our NE ice as I type this.

Stinkin' interlopers. They raised the lid on my cage to get in, but I think I can fix that problem with tiny little conibears. That is after I restock the cage this spring.

Al they did that to me, also - so I made the cage lid netting much larger to allow pellets but small enough to keep out critters [1" mesh] and zip tied it down. Kept the GBH, Coons, Mink and others from accessing from the top.

Thanks TJ. I did all of that but zip tie the lid down. I'm trying to figure out a way to mount a 110 conibear into the lid and make that access easy for critters to enter by.

Conibear 120 support

This is to be used to hold a conibear 120 (110 with 2 springs)in hard ground vertically to keep it from tipping over. I imagine you could weave the bottom of it into the mesh had cut 2 slits for the springs. This fits getween the jaws and the lilttie posts at the top fit between the round spring ends that are by the rivet when the trap is set.

To hake the hole smaller where the trigger wires are, run a thin piece of wire from one trigger wire to another. That prevents a mink from squeezing between the wires when they are spread out wide.

You might be able to accomplish the same thing by taking 2 pieces of 1/8" steel rod and putting it between the jaws and laying it flat over a hole you cut in the lid, then make 2 slits in the netting for the spring to open without bouncing the trap up in the air.

Tomorrow if I remember I'll take a picture of what I'm talking about.

Thanks again. This is what the plan was, but the pre-built supports are too cheap not to buy.

Another trap support option that works well for placing in deeper water is;

Deep water Conibear support